The Last King of Scotland Critic Reviews

Unlike Sean Penn's demagogue in "All the King's Men," you're able to forget that Whitaker is acting. He embodies the role. When clips of the real Amin are shown at the end, it's almost shocking to realize the extent to which Whitaker has become him.Read the full review

Drawing on a documentary visual style he deftly employed in "One Day in September" and "Touching the Void," director Kevin Macdonald uses McAvoy's boyishness to treat Garrigan's apolitical foolishness as yet another damn mess in one African country's hell.Read the full review

Captures the energy and exuberance of a young nation in the throes of optimism and works it into a foreboding frenzy.Read the full review

Macdonald has a fetching feel for the continent, and the movie has a powerful sense of what Africa looks and feels like; you can almost smell it.Read the full review

The film as a whole measures up to Forest Whitaker's performance...one of the great performances of modern movie history.Read the full review

Forest Whitaker is astoundingly multifaceted and convincing as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. In the performance of his career, he fully inhabits the part of the barbaric and charismatic ruler.Read the full review

Whitaker is on fire, and as long as he's onscreen, King keeps you riveted.Read the full review

Director Kevin Macdonald has fashioned a film that is at times nearly as harrowing as his previous endeavor, "Touching the Void."Read the full review

The Last King of Scotland never rises to the standard set by Forest Whitaker's fearless (and fearsome) performance as Idi Amin.Read the full review